Confusion
by Tina6000000
Summary: What happens when Sam gets his powers back? Will this mean a new era of the FAYZ? Will new heroes arise in the darkest times? Whats with the new girls? Rated T cuz I'm paranoid. Open to suggestion. Constructive criticism welcome.
1. Prologue

**MY BIG DISCLAIMER SINCE I WILL FORGET TO DO THIS EVER AGAIN: I AM NOT MICHAEL GRANT. I AM ME.**

**PROLUGUE **|

**SAM JOLTED** AWAKE, his heart thudding in his chest and the echo of screams ringing through his head. He gently extricated himself from Astrid, slipping off the bed silently and padding across the floor of the apartment they shared with Diana.

As he walked to his dresser he heard something. It started quietly, but as more time passed the noise became louder, until Sam could clearly pick out the voices. The voices of the people Gaia had killed with his light.

Suddenly, thinking about those times, Sam became very aware of the darkness around him. It seemed to be closing in around him, and he couldn't stop it when his breaths became quicker and more forced. He felt like the darkness was trying its hardest to crush him; it was the same feeling he had had that night in the FAYZ. The night of no light.

Once again, Sam's breaths sped up. Out of instinct, Sam pushed the palm of his hands in front of him, a gesture that normally would have caused some kind of light to form.

Sam wasn't expecting for it to actually come. In front of him formed a small glowing ball of green light. A Sammy Sun, he remembered it was called. It had been so long since he had seen one.

There was no way he was awake. Sam's powers, along with everyone else's, had disappeared when the FAYZ ended. He was dreaming. Yes, that was it; dreaming. There was no other way to explain how the light had come back. But there was only one way to be sure. Reaching out again, he willed the eerily glowing ball of light to heat up, but he wasn't sure if he could do that. Never had any reason to in the FAYZ, since the Sammy Suns had only been used as nightlights Also, he'd never had to test if his power was there or if he was dreaming. That hadn't come up.

Slowly, he put his hand though it.

It was probably the stupidest thing he could have done. Though it wasn't hot enough to be considered fire, it _was _very, very _hot. _He nearly screamed in pain as he quickly drew his hands back, but he managed to squelch it. However, he couldn't suppress the small squeak that managed to escape his mouth from the pain.

"Astrid?" he called out warily, trying to conceal his panic and keep it from his voice but failing miserably, "You might want to see this."


	2. Chapter 1

**ONE **|

**ASTRID NEARLY** FELL off the bed, startled at the alarm and panic in Sam's voice. It may have been five months since the FAYZ had come to an end, but Astrid still had all the habits she'd acquired. Being an incredibly light sleeper who could be alert no matter how she'd been woken up was one of the better ones.

She was up and out of bed within an instant, seeing Sam standing at his dresser, illuminated almost eerily in a white-green light. She came up beside him, wondering what had him so scared. As she placed her hand on his shoulder, the orb of light came into view.

Sam's light.

For a moment, all she could manage to do is stand there and stare, frozen in horror.

"No," she whispered finally, without even meaning to. Sam was more rigid than when he had been as she approached him; Astrid thought that he'd tried to convince himself that he'd been dreaming, and now that she saw it too he couldn't deny the fact that it was real.

But it couldn't be. The FAYZ was over. Their lives had just started, fractionally, to lose some of the taint the FAYZ had left on them. The gawking of random people in the street, as if they were movie star villains, had just started to die down.

And now this.

She wrenched her eyes away from the light, realizing that her hand was just hovering in midair above Sam's shoulder. She hesitated, then lifted her other hand up too and placed it on his other shoulder. She stepped behind Sam and his orb, using her hands on his shoulders to rotate him 180 degrees until he was facing her with his back to the light.

He seemed to snap out of his reverie at last. "Astrid," he said, the terror in his voice causing fear to course through her. "What if this is the beginning of it again? It could be just like last time."

It took a moment for her to process his words in her shock. "Wait…. you mean you think there'll be another FAYZ?" She dropped her hands to her sides and stepped back, shaking her head in disbelief and horror, unwiling to admit that any of this could be real.

Sam hesitated. It was obvious that he didn't want to freak her out any farther, but Astrid knew that was exactly what he thought.

"No," she said, shaking her head violently. "No, no, no. This can't be happening."

"Astrid," Sam began, reaching out to her.

She drew in a shaky breath, calming herself. "Do it again," she ordered him.

Sam frowned. "Do what?" he asked. Realization dawned on his face. "Oh," he said. He drew in a steadying breath, bracing himself.

He summoned an orb, identical to the one Astrid could see just over his shoulder. They drew in a sharp breath in unison.

"Diana?" Astrid called through the gloom of their apartment, the gloom that had caused Sam to panic and create the light. Just like before.

**A/N Ok I don't think I explained this in the last chapter but my friend (you know who you are) and I were thinking about this idea a while back and we started writing Confusion. I _finally _convinced her to let me post this last night. This is our first fanfiction so suggestion****s are welcome. We'll be posting a couple chapters today so expect another soon after this. The chapters will normally be about this long or more. CYA!**


	3. Chapter 2

**TWO **|

**DIANA GROANED, **SWATTING away the insistent hand on her shoulder that was shaking her roughly in an attempt to wake her.

"Diana, come on!" Astrid's voice. Diana responded by rolling over so she was facing the wall instead of Astrid.

"Ugh! It's no use. She sleeps like a hibernating grizzly! Do the light. That'll get her up."

"Uh, Astrid, are you sure that's a good idea?" Sam's voice sounded nervous.

"Of course not!" Astrid was frantic. Dimly, Diana registered that something must be wrong, but she wasn't conscious enough to really process that or do anything about it. But no one, no matter how out of it, could ignore a beam of blinding light shooting through their bedroom.

"Aaaargh!" Diana exclaimed, yanking her pillow out from over her head and using it to cover her face. The light dissipated as quickly as it had come, but it was still seared into her mind.

"Diana, you have to get up," Sam said, relief in his voice. Probably he was relieved that he hadn't blasted anything apart. The wall was a bit singed, though.

"You really need to work on your wakeup call," Diana grumbled, already grumpy. She hadn't seemed to notice that anything was out of the ordinary with the light that she was complaining about.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed, accidentally causing Astrid to yelp when she unexpectedly kicked her in the shin. "What's so important? And it better be good," she added, her tone a clear warning.

"Oh, it's important," Sam said. "My light's back."

Diana froze mid-yawn, staring at Sam and Astrid wide eyed. She took a second to absorb the news, but as soon as she processed it she shot to her feet. "_What?_" Diana exclaimed, disbelief and terror vying for prominence in her tone. "But... I thought your power disappeared when the FAYZ ended! It can't be back," she stammers, her voice growing desperate by the end. "That would mean-"

"That the FAYZ could be happening again," Astrid finished grimly, confirming Diana's fears. She sagged against the wall, her back sliding down it as she sank onto the floor, putting her face in her hands.

"Diana," Sam started hesitantly, seeing how upset his friend was, "we were wondering if your power came back too. We thought we should test it soon." He said it gently, making sure to say soon instead of, say, right now, which was more what they'd been hoping.

She takes a deep breath and nods. "Sam, give me your hand."

Sam smiles in relief, but his eyes are still filled with worry and it seemed the smile was more for the girls' sake. He gives Diana his hand, and she closes her eyes, concentrating.

There. She felt it, the sensation still familiar after all that time. She couldn't quite place exactly how strong he was now. He seemed so much more powerful all of a sudden. After a second of hesitation she put it off as just having not used her powers in so long.

Diana opened her eyes. "I've still got my power," she says, more to herself than to either of them. But now she spoke to Sam, looking up at him. "And you've definitely got yours." A look of pain crossed over his face, but Diana couldn't quite be sure what he was thinking.

Astrid put a comforting hand on Sam's arm, but he refused to meet her eyes. The reason became clear as he spoke.

"Diana, you should test Astrid too," he says. After a moment of shocked silence, Astrid nods slowly.

"It doesn't seem likely that you two get the same powers as before but I would have randomly developed a new one, but it does make sense. It's probably better just to test me anyways," she says, shrugging even though Diana could see the tension in her posture and expression. Diana stands up, taking hold of Astrid's hand. She concentrated, and again the read felt blurry and more powerful than it should have. She frowned and shook her head, releasing Astrid's hand. She described how unclear the readings were, saying that her power was out of practice.

Her power was a lot like it had been in the time with Caine before the FAYZ, when she first learned how to successfully use her powers. She shuddered. This all seemed like a nightmare, a replay of all the worst events in her life orchestrated by her cruel subconscious.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Diana asked, trying not to let her fear show on her face. She she knew she didn't fool them, though. They were all terrified.

Sam shook his head, just as confused as she was. "I don't know," he said honestly.

Luckily, Astrid had an idea.

**A/N So there's chapter 2! Let me know if you see any spelling mistakes. One more chapter coming today. Maybe two.**


	4. Chapter 3

**THREE **|

**ANGELINA LAUGHED, **THE SOUND oddly forced because of the tension between the girls. Sapphire had tried to lighten their mood, especially Sophia's, but in the end she failed. Nothing could brighten their moods since they'd heard.

Sam had his powers back. So did Diana. Things were turning out to look a lot like the time just before the FAYZ, the worst event in Angelina's life. She had spent the entire time scared, always looking over her back; even her sister couldn't help her get over her fear. They had gotten free of it at last five months ago, but now it was looking like they might have to go back.

Sophia was acting like an angry mother bear, trying to protect all four of her cubs at once. She had always been a little overprotective of her younger sisters, Rose and Angelina, but since the FAYZ she hardly ever let them out of her sight.

She had recently begun to act the same way towards Scarlett and Sapphire, even though the twins weren't related to her. Scarlett, Sapphire, Rose, and Angelina had become good friends during the FAYZ, watching each other's backs and protecting each other from the horrors that awaited them everywhere.

Sophia hadn't been in the FAYZ, since she was already fifteen when it started. She had spent the entire time they were trapped in there working with the press to make sure the public stayed on the side of the kids trapped inside. She'd been one of the main people talking in favor of them once the dome went clear and the public turned on the kids. She had grown fond of Scarlett and Sapphire since she had learned of the way they had helped to take care of her two younger sisters.

Scarlett and Sapphire had lost their mom and dad both when Gaia fired her light through the dome, which added to Sophia's over-protectiveness of the twins. She was aware of the pain of losing a parent, as hers had died in a car accident five years previous. Since then she had taken on the role of the mother in the family, and had recently added Scarlett and Sapphire to that group. She acted like their mom, and the twins never protested.

"I don't think it's very likely you guys will have powers," Sophia said, obviously trying to reassure them. "You hardly had any the first time. It's different with Diana and Sam."

Sapphire tried to smile, but that too was forced. Normally Sapphire was the one who was always cheering everyone up, especially in the FAYZ, when everyone was too scared for themselves to be happy about anything. Even though she was never exactly cheery herself in any of those instances.

She made a good effort though, and the tension did ease an infinitesimal amount. Only Scarlett was unaffected by her twin's comfort. She knew her too well to think that she believed what Sophia had said.

"I hope not," Scarlett said, "considering what Zil did to the moofs in the last FAYZ. That was horrible," she and Sapphire shivered at the memory.

"I agree," Rose said, she too remembering the torture Zil inflicted on the mutants. "If we have powers, or at least any more power than last time, then it'd make us targets. If there's gonna be another FAYZ, then you do _not_ want to be singled out." This time she shuddered, thinking of the fates of the ones who had been unable to prevent being singled out and captured. Even the ones who had survived after becoming so prominent didn't have a very good time through their life in the FAYZ. Or after, she was sure.

"Zil's gone. We won't have to worry about him again," said Sapphire, trying to change the topic and lift the mood.

"That doesn't mean we won't have to worry about others like him," Scarlett argued. Sapphire shot her a warning look, as if to say not to make things worse and just go with it. She was trying to make them feel better, not be reasonable. Often no one could do both at once.

"What? Just stating the facts, Saph. There's no way to avoid it," Scarlett responded warily. She didn't often argue with her twin, but none of them were in a very good mood.

"And I'm just trying to be a little less gloomy. You guys are downright depressing," Sapphire pouts.

Rose steps between them with a stern look on her face, knowing that is the best tactic when there's no chance they'll just concede and laugh. Often when they argue over a less grim topic, that's what happens. They both randomly burst into laughter and their anger diffuses instantly. But that obviously wasn't gonna happen.

"Come on, guys. We need to go see Diana. Even if you guys don't want any powers you have to be discovered, it's still an order from Sam," Sophia said. Even though they were out of the FAYZ, an order from Sam wasn't something any of them could ignore. He was still a leader to them, though now he wasn't as essential to their survival.

The girls grudgingly agreed, and the five of them rose from their positions on either the beds belonging to the twins or the carpeted floor of their bedroom.

By the time they reached the park they were supposed to go to in order to get tested by Diana, all five girls were sick of walking. They'd misjudged the distance big time, and had ended up walking five miles. How they managed to mess up that much, none of them knew. But now they all knew not to trust Angelina with the map.

"It's not my fault!" Angelina protested as they located Sam, Astrid and Diana and trudged over to them wearily. All of them gave Angelina a disbelieving look. They had been arguing with her the entire time they'd been walking, but the youngest of them still kept circulating back to that. No matter how much they all reminded her that she was the one with the map, she refused to admit her guiltiness.

The other four girls exchanged a look, all of them sick of Angelina's conviction. Before they could continue the argument though, they arrived within earshot of Astrid, Sam, and Diana.

"Hi guys. Diana had some problems with her power this morning, but she seems to have it back now. No one she's tested has showed signs of having a power yet though, so we're not entirely sure," Sam said. Weariness lined his face, going deeper than the physical weariness of the girls.

He frowned when he noticed Sophia standing behind them. "Were you in the FAYZ? I don't remember you."

"No, I was too old for the FAYZ," she replied, shaking her head.

Sam looked worried. "I didn't want anyone older than the FAYZ. It may have been chaos when the adults disappeared, but I'm not sure that we're not better off without them," he said grimly.

"I'm their older sister," Sophia stated protectively, stepping in front of the girls so she was positioned in between them and Sam. "And I'm only sixteen. Not an adult."

Sam hesitated, but then grudgingly nodded and led the group over to where Astrid and Diana were lounging in the shade under the sweeping boughs of a faded willow tree.

Diana stood up as they approached her. Weariness was clearly visible in her features as well. "Who's first?" she asked, her dark eyes skimming over them and hovering on Sophia for a moment before moving on. "Were all of you in the FAYZ?" she asks.

"I wasn't. I'm their older sister, but I was too old for the FAYZ. I'm only sixteen, though." She added hastily after the encounter with Sam.

Diana just held out her hand for the first person to take. Scarlett stepped forward, taking Diana's outstretched hand after a moment's hesitation.

Diana let go after a second. Her eyes were wide with something akin to fear in them.

"She's got a power, that's for sure," Diana said. "She's a five. Even higher than Sam and C-Caine." she faltered on Caine's name. Her pronouncement was met with an astounded silence. Scarlett had gone white, the color drained from her face. A similar thing had happened to her twin.

"_What?!"_ Angelina burst out, voicing everyone's thoughts.

After another moment, Sam spoke.

"Sapphire, you're Scarlett's twin, aren't you?" he asked carefully.

Sapphire's brow furrowed, her face still pale. "Yeah. Why?" Realization hit her and she turned whiter than Scarlett. "You think I'd be as powerful as her. Like you and Caine." Diana winced.

The look in Sam's eyes issued a silent command. Without saying anything, she stepped forward tentatively and thrust her hand out towards Diana.

Diana took it after a brief hesitation. Almost immediately after she touched it, she let go.

"It's the same," she announced. Scarlett and Sapphire were both just standing, frozen, as were the rest of the girls. They all were in complete shock.

Angelina and Rose exchanged a terrified glance before Rose stepped forward slowly, almost cringing away from Diana out of fear of what she might say. Diana closed the distance between them, grabbing hold of Rose's hand.

She'd closed her eyes in advance so she could concentrate, but now her eyes flew open as she made contact with Rose.

She dropped her hand.

"Five," Diana said, disbelief written across her face as well as Sam and Astrid's. "She's a five too. I think there might be something wrong with my power. There's no way all three of them just happen to be more powerful than the most powerful people in the FAYZ."

"Test me then."

Sophia spoke, striding confidently toward Diana. "If I have a five, then we can suspect that something's wrong with her power. If not, then it's probably on track."

Diana tilted her head thoughtfully. "Good idea," she said.

Sophia offered her hand. Diana closed her eyes again. Again she dropped her hand almost immediately, her eyes wide again and her head shaking.

"Five?" Sapphire asked, a note of hope coloring her voice.

"No," Diana said slowly. They sighed collectively, all of them disappointed except for Sophia. Despite her hypothesis, she would've been a little worried if Diana had declared her a five.

"She's a four."

Diana was met once again by silence. Now Sophia was the one who drained of color.

Sam was confused. How were these girls so powerful when they had previously shown so little power? And Sophia hadn't even been in the FAYZ. And now three of them, at least, were more powerful than he and Caine.

He didn't see how it was possible. But there was still one more girl that had a likelihood of being the same as her sisters.

Impatiently, Angelina stepped forward. "Get it over with," she said, closing her eyes. Her muscles were tensed, prepared for the worst, as if Diana would suddenly just lash out and magically cause extreme pain to her nerves. Despite the situation he was in, Sam barely held his snort of amusement in check.

Diana slowly took her hand, her eyes not leaving her face until she touched Angelina's hand. When she did so, she jerked back, an alarmed expression on her face.

"What?" Sophia asked, worried about her sister.

"She's another five," Diana said, sighing. "I don't see how this is happening. You had no powers before and now all of a sudden you have more power than the most powerful mutants in the FAYZ." Sam winced at the word mutants, along with the girls. "This shouldn't happen. People don't just randomly develop extreme power. You must have had at least some sort of power in the FAYZ."

The four youngest of the girls just shrugged, their faces all still white and unable to have full control over what they said. The oldest just stared at them with one raised eyebrow.

"Um, ya that makes sense for them I guess. But first of all, they didn't have any signs of power in the FAYZ; and secondly, I wasn't even _in _the FAYZ."

"I don't get it." Sapphire said, the only one of the four of them who had regained her speech. "We weren't moofs. We don't have powers. Last time, we didn't even have enough of a power to tell what they were. Now we're supposed to be more powerful than _you?_" Sapphire's tone was the pinnacle of disbelief.

"It doesn't make any sense to me either," Astrid said, stepping closer to the rest of them. It was the first time she had spoken since they'd gotten there. "I think we should talk to some others from the FAYZ. See if they've gotten their powers back or developed new ones, like you guys have. Dekka was hanging out with Edilio today, wasn't she?" Sam nodded. "Then we should go talk to the two of them. I think Dekka's been keeping an eye on Lana, along with Sanjit and his family. She'd know where they are so we can contact them as well."

"Good idea," Sam said, moving over to Astrid and taking her hand. He turned toward the girls, where they had been standing ever since they'd all gotten the results of Diana's reading. "Will you guys come? We have to try and figure out what your powers are. There's never been any five bars before, so we'll also need to know how powerful you guys are."

Sapphire glanced at Scarlett, then at the rest of the girls. Scarlett nodded, still unable to speak and telling Sapphire to tell Sam that they'd go. Still, Sapphire hesitated. But after a moment she looked back at Sam.

"We'll go," she said, her voice unwavering.

**A/N Ok the other chapters were kinda short so WE'RE JUST GONNA DROWN YOU PEOPLE IN WORDS WITH THIS CHAPTER. I hope we can make more of our chapters longer like this but it may not always happen so bear with us. We'll try to update as often as possible but we can't ****guarantee**** updates will be on time with school happening and all. Again, suggestions are always welcome. CYA next time!**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N Ok so we would have had this up a couple days ago, but our computers both started glitching and my dog came in and sat on my computer so we had to do A LOT of editing to get rid of the havoc he caused. By the time we were done it was late and I didn't feel in the mood to write anymore. The next day we were really busy with homework and sports and stuff so we couldn't do anything then either. That's my excuse. Just so you know, my friend was being really dramatic when we wrote the tests, so she just had to make it like that. I let her do whatever she wanted on that part. So that part is not entirely my fault.**

**Up until now has basically been filler chapters to get to the actual point and introduce the characters, but we are running out of names and new people to introduce to the story. We are now accepting OC's to help with that. At the bottom of this chapter is the guidelines for making a character, but I can't guarantee that your character will be used in the story, and if it is, then it may take a while before we introduce him/her. Sorry for the really long author's note. Onto the story!**

**FOUR** |

**EDILIO STARED **SCEPTICALLY down at the girls, his face full of the same expression of disbelief the girls, Diana, Astrid, and Sam had been wearing when they first found out about the girls' power.

"These girls are all four more powerful than you and Caine, but they had no powers at all in the last FAYZ, and they still haven't shown any signs whatsoever of any powers? That doesn't make any sense," he said, shaking his head with disbelief.

"We don't get it either," Angelina agreed. "We were shocked when Diana said we were fives. It was the last thing we expected."

"So you don't even know what your powers are?" Edilio exclaimed incredulously.

"No, we don't. None of us do," Sapphire responded. Her twin nodded in agreement.

Edilio and Sam exchanged a look that none of the rest of them understood.

"We may have a way to figure out your powers," Sam began slowly. "But you're not gonna like it."

"What is it already?" Rose snapped impatiently.

"Well," Edilio said nervously, wringing his hands. "We may need Sam to do something if you can't do it on your own, but if you can then he won't have to. We're hoping for that second option. That's about the best I can explain it."

The girls went white again, but they all nodded fearfully. Sam looked away, an expression of what could be pain crossing his face.

Edilio looked at them regretfully. "I'm sorry. I really don't want to be doing any of this, but I think it's best to be prepared for this situation. I don't like it, but I think we can all agree that this is necessary."

Sam nodded, his face grave. "Edilio's right."

Somehow Sam's endorsement didn't really make them feel better about this plan. It sounded like a death sentence to their fearful ears. They later realized that might have been somewhat an overreaction, but at the time they were terrified.

As usual, Sapphire spoke up. "So, do you guys have any ideas on how we're going to try to discover them on our own?"

"Um," Edilio looked at Sam, who shrugged.

"Just point your hands in that direction," he pointed over to a corner that was completely empty, "and try to make yourself mad enough to want to hurt something, to take your anger out on it. Thats how a lot of us did it at first. When you get more experienced it should just come naturally." The girls looked incredulously at Sam, who had said this all like it was no big deal.

Sapphire still looked doubtful. "What if that's not the kind of power we have? What if it's like Lana's, and nothing will happen when we do any of this?"

Sam's brow furrowed. "I guess I didn't really think of that."

Astrid stepped forward. "If that's the case, then we'll just have to wait until the FAYZ to see what you can do. I'm sure your powers will show themselves somehow, seeing as they'll be so strong."

Sapphire nodded reluctantly. She wasn't sure what she'd been hoping, but she was a little disappointed.

Sam nodded as well. "So, who wants to try it out first?"

Sapphire stepped forward, appearing a lot braver than she felt at that particular moment.

"I'll go first. I'm going to try and do as you said, but I'm not entirely sure I want to try the other thing if I can't do it," she added, fear crossing her face only long enough for Scarlett to notice. She stepped forward, about to protest, but Sapphire cut her off with a look before she said anything. A pained look dominated her expression, but she fell back to where she had been, closing her mouth.

A similar expression was on her twin's face, but that passed quickly once again. Sapphire, out of all of them, was by far the best at keeping her feelings hidden. Even Scarlett often was left clueless over how she really felt. That's why she had been such a comfort to the other girls. The fact that she was showing this much emotion, even, meant she was really afraid.

Sam watched the silent exchange between the two intently, so he was a little caught off guard when Sapphire raised her hands and turned to the corner he'd gestured to earlier. He took a second to comprehend, but as soon as he did he stepped back, gesturing for everyone else to do the same.

They did, all except Scarlett, who had been so focused on her sister that she didn't notice that anything else had happened until Rose tried to reach out and pull her back with them, but Scarlett gave her a withering glare and Rose relented, stepping back to join the other girls and Sam.

Sapphire closed her eyes, focusing intently on everything Sam had said. She channeled every shred of fear, sadness, or anger she'd felt during or since the FAYZ, the thing that had ruined her life so long ago, which added up to a lot. Despite how long it had been, it almost scared Sapphire how easy it was too call up these ugly, deep emotions, and she added that feeling into the mix. She recalled the feeling of hatred she had felt towards those who had been involved in many of the evil things there - Zil, Caine, even Sam, to some extent. A jolt of pain raced through her heart.

She was on the verge of sobbing, and suddenly she felt a rush of power rise up in her. It threatened to explode out of her, and Sapphire felt herself losing control of it entirely.

Panicking, she quickly reined in her feelings again, which took a long moment as she pinched her eyes shut even tighter, but she finally opened her eyes, blinked, and stepped back. The power dropped back inside of her, making her feel dizzy, rattled, and completely sapped of energy. It took everything left in her not to fall over.

"Nothing," she said in a small voice. Scarlett rushed forward, enveloping her sister in a bone-crushing hug that would have nearly suffocated some people, but Sapphire only smiled and hugged her sister back, entirely used to this. There was no sign of anything she'd just felt, and that just made Scarlett hug her tighter, as she knew her twin was holding back her feelings.

Actually, it was Scarlett who had tears fill her eyes as she hugged Sapphire. The others took a small step back as the sisters hugged. After a moment, Sapphire gently stepped out of Scarlett's embrace, but she still held onto Scarlett's arms, keeping her a little closer than arms' length.

Scarlett wiped her eyes angrily, feeling dumb for tearing up when her sister was the one who'd just felt that wealth of feeling. Sapphire was fine, nothing had even happened to her, and here she was crying like an idiot. Finally her eyes dried, and she looked at Sam.

"My turn," Scarlett announced with finality, knowing Sapphire would try to argue with her.

Sure enough, Sapphire didn't even hesitate before saying, "No. No way."

"Why?" Scarlett challenged, her eyes narrowing as she stepped away from her sister, causing Sapphire's hands to fall back limply to hang at her sides. They weren't limp for long, though, as she almost immediately put her hands on her hips in a stubborn stance.

Sapphire opened her mouth, about to respond, but Scarlett cut her off. "Why? You just did, and nothing even happened to you. I didn't try to stop you, and now you're trying to stop me. I can do the same things you can do, no matter what you believe."

Sapphire flinched and took a step back, a wounded expression appearing on her face; this time she didn't bother trying to conceal it. "I never said that! Scar, just trust me. Don't do this," she pleaded, begging Scarlett with her eyes as well as her words. "Please."

"No, Saph. Don't try to protect me."

"That's not it! I would go back and choose not to have done that, and I know you'll feel the same. I'm not saying I'm any better than you." Sapphire all but yelled.

"Why? I don't even get how it's a big deal! Nothing even happened to you! You're fine! Why are you acting like this?" Scarlett responded, flabbergasted.

Sapphire hesitated, and for a second it looked like she was going to answer, but then her face crumpled and she ran out of the room.

Everyone else just shared looks of complete bewilderment. They'd all been following the incomprehensible argument like a tennis match, their heads swiveling back and forth between the twins as they fought. They had no idea how they were supposed to react to this fight, though. Sure, the girls had had their fair share of quarrels, they were sisters after all, but nothing as intense as this was. And nobody could understand why it was such a big deal.

On top of that, the girls were all confused by how Sapphire had just run off like that. She'd never backed down from an argument bigger than just a dumb squabble, and she never showed emotion of that magnitude. They'd never seen Sapphire react this way to anything before, even in the FAYZ.

Rose cleared her throat. "Um, Scarlett, what just happened?"

Scarlett just shook her head mutely. She had no idea how to answer Rose. Instead, she turned to Sam.  
>"Well, I guess it's my turn to try," she said shakily. She was more afraid than she cared to admit after Sapphire's words of warning, and how worked up her usually calm, peaceful twin was left her feeling more than a little shaken up.<p>

Sam shook his head. "No. You need to go after Sapphire."

Scarlett started to protest, but Sam's voice was firm and she was still a little too intimidated to challenge him. But still, she looked around at the others for support, but all of their expressions urged her to go after Sapphire, even Astrid's and Diana's. Sophia placed her hand on Scarlett's shoulder.

"Go," she said softly, "Sapphire needs you."

Scarlett still huffed indignantly as she left, but her heart wasn't in it. Sophia was right, and that propelled her out the door after her twin.

Meanwhile, Sapphire had locked herself in a small room nearby. She'd spent her entire life always keeping her feelings in check, and now that she'd acknowledged them she felt the heavily fortified walls she'd worked so hard and so long to build crumbling down, demolishing them, as if they were never there in the first place, leaving her feeling easily viewable for the rest of the world, and her vulnerable to outsiders.

Waves of emotion racked her body as she huddled in her little corner of the room. She tried desperately to control her feelings, build a temporary fortress to keep them in check, but her terror just added to the melee and she felt herself losing control once more.

The power rose up in her again, overwhelming Sapphire. She screamed, and the power burst forth in a sudden and unpredictable rush.

The air in the room seemed to crystallize, freezing and thinning until most normal people wouldn't be able to breathe at all. But Sapphire wasn't normal; she knew that now, she had to accept it. Anyone who would have walked into the room Sapphire was hiding in would have been stunned by the beauty of the crystallized air, practically sparkling with crystals, but Sapphire didn't even notice it. Her emotions took over the power, and the air that had stopped moving and almost frozen began moving again all at once, causing a tornado of swirling air to form around her. She wasn't even able to feel shocked, still just focused on her emotions and trying desperately to control them that she wasn't really processing anything.

But then she was jerked out of her reverie by a noise that pierced the howling wind, hardly audible over the tremendous roar, but shattering in volume to Sapphire.

It was a scream. Scarlett's scream.

**A/N**

**Little cliffy there for ya. This chapter was mainly centered around the twins, Sapphire and Scarlett, along with Sapphire's discovering her powers. Anyways, don't forget to R+R.**

**These are the guidelines if you want to submit an OC:**

**Character name**

**Power (If any, can not be any previously used) (Power level may be altered depending on how many people we have at different levels)**

**Appearance**

**Age (Must be younger than 17)**

**Anything else you wish to add (Background, jobs, what they did in the last FAYZ if they were there, parents, etc.)**

**/break\**

**If anyone is confused on the ages of the girls, then here's a list**

**Sophia-16**

**Rose-15**

**Sapphire-14, older than Scarlett by, like, 3 minutes**

**Scarlett-14**

**Angelina-14, 5 months younger than Scarlett and Sapphire**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hi, this is said friend from earlier chapters. My name is actually Kayla, not 'my friend'. I'm punishing Kari by making her let me write this author's note. And she was an accomplice in me making the last chapter so dramatic. Sorry about the cliffhanger, by the way. Not really. **

**Anyway, this chapter is a lot better than the last in the way of dramatics. I didn't blow things out of proportion this time. Much. **

**And I actually am sorry for making the recent chapters so long. I like to drag things out, as I am discovering. Much like I am this author's note. Sorry about that as well.**

**FIVE** |

**SAM WASN'T** REALLY sure what to think of the girls. They were an odd bunch, but they seemed to have a connection that was rare to see in even the closest of friends. The one with the black hair and brown eyes - Sophia - seemed to act as the mother hen of sorts to the bunch. She reminded him of his own mother, at least before the FAYZ. Although she seemed to have a major protective streak.

Rose seemed to be the second oldest. She had bright red hair and green grass-like eyes. Often, she acted like the overprotective older sister, but she was a little timid.

The twins truly puzzled him. They were fraternal twins, not identical. Sapphire had blonde hair streaked with light brown, while Scarlett had the same blonde hair, without the brown, and dark eyes that seemed to glint - a sort of combination between chocolate brown and amber.

Sam had seen a lot of twins before, seeing as he was a twin himself. But not even any identical twins he'd seen had had a connection as deep as these two. Not even Emma and Anna. Their personalities were so different, though. As close as he could figure, Sapphire was the kind of girl that would hide her own feelings behind a mask of confidence and happiness. Scarlett was more on the side of 'I will say what I mean and you can not stop me'. How complete opposites could get along so well was a puzzling thing.

Angelina was the youngest. She had light golden blonde hair and multicolor kaleidoscope eyes. She was hyper, strong and, much like Brianna, didn't seem like the type that would easily take orders from anyone, no matter the authority they had.

It was odd how so many different personalities could even be in the same place as one another, much less get along with one another. How they were related was a mystery to him. Sam sighed. Girls were confusing. It was like a rubix cube strapped onto strangers screaming at you in another language. Completely incomprehensible. Hopeless, really, to try and figure out what they were like. He glanced over at Astrid, a small smile playing on his lips. She was certainly no exception to this mysterious world of girls.

He was still pondering all of this when a roar built up, sounding like hurricane force winds trying to demolish a small village. Immediately all other thoughts evaporated, remembering that Scarlett and Sapphire were somewhere in this building, most likely the cause of the racket.

He rushed to the door along with everyone else in the room. Rose got there first, as she had been standing nearest to it. She yanked on the handle, and everyone surged forward, expecting the door to swing open normally.

But it didn't. The door handle would turn perfectly fine, but when Rose tried to open the door, it wouldn't budge, as if it were sealed shut.

Finally, Sophia and Angelina joined her, seeing her struggles and comprehending the problem immediately. All three of them heaved mightily, exerting their greatest force upon the door. Together they managed to crack it open, but as soon as they did, a gust of wind blew through it so powerfully that it caused all three of them to topple over one another and collapse into a heap on the floor. The door was closed before any of them even touched the ground, slamming shut so strongly that it rattled everything in the room.

Sophia, Rose, and Angelina disentangled themselves from one another, helping each other up and staring at the door.

"What was that?" The voice came from Diana, who had, until now, remained silent throughout pretty much this entire visit. Everyone just looked around the room helplessly, as if the answer to her question as well as all of their unspoken ones were hidden in the walls and dark corners. Nobody really knew how to answer her.

**/Break\**

Sapphire jolted back into reality, and instantly the mobs of emotion retreated. The power was still there, though, and it sent an exhilarating thrill through her now that all the ugly feelings were gone. She shoved that back almost as vigorously, however; Scarlett needed help.

"Scarlett!" she cried out into the maelstrom.

There was no reply.

Desperately, Sapphire fought against the wind to regain her feet, and then she realized, truly realized, even though it should've occurred to her much sooner, that she was the cause of this. She was using her power.

And she might've hurt Scarlett.

That thought alone was enough to propel her to her feet, and this time the winds didn't try to stop her, actually supporting her and helping to hold her upright. She still staggered through the tornado, looking for a glimpse of anything that wasn't just swirling debris in this mess - blonde hair, tan skin, clothing, anything. Several times she was lifted off her feet, but all it took was a thought and the wind set her back on the ground.

The twisting and thrashing of the wind made her dizzy, but she remained focused entirely on her task. She _needed_ to find Scarlett. If she was hurt because of her, Sapphire would never, ever have the ability to forgive herself, nor would she ever be able to look her sister in the eyes again without remembering this.

Finally, she spotted her. She must have subconsciously acted on her resolve to protect Scarlett, because Scarlett was encased in a pocket of air, untouched by the winds, unconscious.  
>Sapphire nearly had a breakdown right then and there at the sight of her limp sister. Scarlett's long golden hair was spread out behind her head, and she lie completely unmoving. For a horrendous moment Sapphire assumed the worst and thought she was dead, but then she shifted and Sapphire nearly wept with relief. Scarlett groaned, and the sound carried to Sapphire even though the wind still raged on. She figured that the wind had brought the sound to Sapphire because of her control over it, but at that moment she wasn't really concerned about how she heard a noise.<p>

She rushed to her sister, unknowingly lifting herself off the ground and zooming through the air to get to her. As soon as she entered Scarlett's little air oasis, the winds relented and ceased around them. Scarlett still remained floating, though, and so did Sapphire, but Sapphire still took no notice of the fact she was airborne.

She caressed Scarlett's freckled cheek, hugging her so tightly that even if she had been conscious in the beginning, she would've passed out by now from sheer lack of air.

Scarlett groaned again and rolled over in midair, as did Sapphire because she was still floating and squeezing the living daylights out of her twin.

Scarlett's eyes opened groggily. Her eyes cleared and widened, however, when she tried to take a breath and promptly found that she couldn't.

"Sapphire," she wheezed, "Can't- breathe-"

Sapphire squealed and released her, concentrating and using her newfound power to help Scarlett access some breathable air even though most of it had flown right out the room. She wasn't sure how she was still breathing, but she somehow she knew that she'd be fine without oxygen. Scarlett, however, would not.

She wasn't sure how she was able to do anything that concentrated, seeing as, just a moment ago, she'd been completely incapable of stopping an icy tornado from nearly killing her twin sister.

Scarlett just seemed to realize that she was no longer touching the ground. Her eyes widened, and her memory seemed to return to her all at once: how she'd fought with Sapphire, Sapphire had run off, and she had gone after Sapphire only to find this. And then she woke up with the life being squeezed out of her as she and her twin hovered in midair.

Kind of a lot to take in. **(And the award for greatest understatement goes to...)**

Sapphire looked down, finally noticing that she and Scarlett were hovering about 5 inches below the ceiling.

"Oh," she said, frowning, as if the fact that they were flying was just a minor nuisance to her. She lowered Scarlett gently to the ground, then descended gracefully herself, pausing to do a front flip midair before landing.

She giggled.

Scarlett just stared at her incomprehensibly, rendered completely speechless by her twin's bizarre behavior.

She didn't have much time to dwell on those thoughts, however, because at that moment Sam burst into the room with a glowing Sammy Sun at the ready in his palms, closely followed by Diana, Astrid, Edilio, Sophia, Rose, and Angelina. The youngest was in the back, undoubtedly because her legs were too short to keep up with the people who were over a year older than her and undoubtedly taller than her as she raced here.

As Sam sprinted through the door, he yelled, "Sapphire! Scarlett! Are you okay? We're coming!"

He stopped dead when he saw the two girls, looking unscathed except for a scratch across Scarlett's forehead.

They just dissolved into fits of uncontrollable laughter. Sam looked around the room, which undoubtedly looked as if a bomb had demolished everything but its inhabitants, in complete befuddlement. "What…" He trailed off.

Angelina, comprehending this faster than some of the others, rolled her eyes. "I was expecting more action than this. I'm going back to the room." With that, she grabbed Astrid by the arm and started towing her out of the room. Astrid looked amused, both by Angelina's antics and Sam's failed heroism, and allowed the smaller girl to drag her out of the room.

However, Rose grabbed Angelina and, with the help of Sophia, managed to keep her from kidnapping the genius and dragging her away.

In response to Sam's half finished question, Sapphire said, "Way to go. You're a little late, Hercules. We handled it. Oh, yeah, in case you haven't caught on yet, I discovered my power. It's air," she finished, sarcasm dripping from her tone up until the afterthought where she revealed her power to Sam.

Scarlett wiped tears from her eyes caused by laughing so hard, but she still didn't stop. Everyone else joined in, even Sam, though somewhat reluctantly in his case.

Finally, Sapphire and Scarlett stopped giggling long enough to tell everyone what happened, and though that sobered them up a bit, every time they got too serious, someone, namely Astrid or Angelina, would bring up the image of Sam bursting into the room, ready to save the day, and Sapphire's sarcastic comments in the moments following, they all started laughing again except Sam, and they laughed even harder as his face reddened, beginning to resemble a ripe tomato.

After quite some time, Sophia reminded them that they still needed to discover the other girls' powers. Scarlett slapped herself in the forehead.

"I completely forgot about that!" she exclaimed. The others nodded and murmured their agreement.

Sapphire hadn't told them about how she had gotten so worked up and actually used her power in the first place, but everyone was afraid to ask. Even Sam seemed a little intimidated by her. She'd proven just how powerful a five could be.

And he was sitting in a room with three others just as powerful as she was.

The thought made shivers race down his spine, but he kept his expression neutral. He knew what it was like to be judged and feared because of something he had no control over, and he knew it wasn't fair to do that to the girls. Still, he found himself distancing his position from Sapphire in their little congregation.

Sapphire wasn't oblivious. She knew that the others, even Scarlett, were scared after her little display. It hurt her, but she reminded herself that she would probably feel the same way towards any of them if they were to trade places, and with that knowledge she pushed the pain deep inside her like she'd always done.

It was the same as before her outburst. All her walls were back up, more guarded than ever, the way she liked it. She herself was afraid of her new power. She didn't want to trigger it accidentally again. Sapphire was acting like her normal, bright, bubbly self once again, and she could tell everyone was starting to relax a bit faster because of it.

Scarlett wasn't sure what to think of her twin. First there was the outburst that was so unlike her gentle, optimistic sister, and then the sudden pulsing of power coming from her that had rendered her unconscious, and the freaky things she used her power for afterward, like drawing the air to her so she could breathe.

Sure, Sapphire had saved her life, but Sapphire had also been the reason her life even needed saving. Scarlett knew that her twin hadn't meant to, and it had all been because of some mysterious new power that she had no control over at the time, but it was still a scary thing to know that she could do that. She wasn't sure which was worse: Sapphire having no control over her power and having these sudden outbursts all the time, or Sapphire being able to control her power and being drawn into all the fights and conflicts of the FAYZ because of it.

And it didn't help that she was terrified of discovering her own power. It could be something even more destructive than Sapphire's, and they already knew it'd be as powerful.

She hadn't noticed Sapphire was watching her, so she was startled when Sapphire placed her hand on Scarlett's arm comfortingly and smiled. Scarlett just looked away, knowing that her thought were most likely on showcase through her expressions and Sapphire had known exactly what she'd been thinking about her.

Indeed Sapphire had, confirming her hidden fears that her own sister would be scared of her.

Scarlett turned around and hugged her sister fiercely. "I'm sorry," she whispered softly. Scarlett wasn't even sure what exactly she was apologizing for, but she felt Sapphire's muscles relax regardless.

Scarlett felt a sudden upsurge in emotion as her grip on her sister was returned. Almost as soon as Sapphire's arms embraced her, her feelings seemed to just soar out of control, much as Sapphire had described, but unlike her twin these were good feelings.

But the power rose up in her anyway.

**A/N So there you have it! Chapter over! Kari will be back to doing the authors note next chapter. Review and make sure you hit that Follow/Favorite button! CYA!**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N I'm gonna make this short. Here's the next chapter. I HOPE YOU LIKE IT.**

**SIX **|

**SCARLETT PANICKED, **TRYING to smother the power that rose up within her, but the panic instantaneously brought back gruesome, terrifying memories of her time in the FAYZ. It wasn't as bad as Sapphire, since she _hadn't_ been suppressing her every feeling for as long as she could remember, but it was enough. The power seemed to feed off of her fear, growing stronger and more uncontrollable the more afraid she became.

She cried out, shoving Sapphire off of her and as far away as she could manage. The power seemed to burst from her every pore, flooding the room in a fiery glow. It was all too much for Scarlett; the light was punctured by little black dots as she gasped for breath, but she couldn't seem to draw air into her deprived lungs. Distantly, she heard sounds of people screaming and crying out in pain, yelling to others to get out.

But then it all slipped away and Scarlett fell into the dark abyss that waited to consume her.

/Break\

Sapphire watched in horror as her sister erupted into flames.

The entire room was soon engulfed in flickering light and unbearable heat. Almost as a reflex, she thrust her hands out, controlling the air around Scarlett until she'd drawn all the oxygen from the area. Instantly the fire on Scarlett went out, and Sapphire began to drop her hands, sighing in relief, but then she noticed the rest of the room was also in flames, and the others were freaking out. She'd been so focused on saving Scarlett that she hadn't even put together the fact that the light and heat wasn't entirely coming from her.

Desperately, she realized that Scarlett was the cause of the fire. Her power.

She'd processed this all in about the space of a second, and turning her head away, she continued to pull away the oxygen from Scarlett.

She tried not to turn her head, but after a moment she couldn't resist it and she looked, worried that she would not only knock Scarlett out, but kill her by keeping the oxygen away so long.

It was worse than all of experiences in the FAYZ, watching her sister gasp and suffocate while knowing she was the cause of it. It took every ounce of resolve for her to continue. A choked sob escaped her, her horror multiplying by the second.

She still couldn't bring herself to look away. The moment that Scarlett slumped forward, Sapphire rushed oxygen through her lungs. Scarlett stayed limply on the floor, out cold. Sapphire rushed to her sister, ignoring the flames that still lapped at her heels and burned her as she ran. Sapphire cradled Scarlett's head gently, sobs ricocheting off the walls of the empty, smoke-filled room.

It was then that Sapphire realized that they were alone and the room was still on fire. Taking a deep breath and repressing a sob, she turned attention away from Scarlett and focused on putting out the remainder of the fire. It had stopped spreading when she'd knocked out Scarlett, but the preexisting flames remained. She took a deep breath, still not sure if she'd need it, and pushed all the oxygen in the room out the door, leaving a bubble around Scarlett so she could breathe. Sapphire waited a bit but she seemed fine, confirming her theory about not necessarily needing to breathe, and Sapphire left the bubble to Scarlett. All the flames went out almost immediately, just like they had on Scarlett.

Sapphire used the air currents to carry Scarlett out, moving her bubble around with her. Scarlett bobbed through the door, nearly having her head slammed into the doorframe. Sapphire made her drop down a little bit to avoid a collision.

She walked just behind the airborne Scarlett, her arms raised to channel her power into keeping Scarlett afloat.

As they stepped outside, the sight awaiting Sapphire made her drop Scarlett in shock. Rose was on the ground, everyone else rushing around her at once. Her screams and cries of agony each pierced Sapphire like a sharp knife, nearly making her cry out in pain.

Angelina was next to her on the sooty floor, holding her older sister's arm and weeping. All the others were either running around retrieving supplies, like Edilio, Diana, and Sam, or applying the supplies that they found to the painful burns that ravaged Rose's arms and legs, such as Astrid and Sophia. A section at the bottom of her shirt had been cut away, exposing an angry red burn on her abdomen as well.

Sapphire just stood there, frozen in horror, until Sam noticed her and hurried over. "Sapphire," he said, his voice both relieved to see her and frantic at the same time. "Where's Scarlett? Rose-"

His words were just enough to jolt her back into gruesome reality and move her focus away from Rose. "I see Rose. Scarlett's over there, knocked out. I had to use my air to make her black out because-" she faltered, afraid that outwardly acknowledging Scarlett's power and role in all of this would make it true. She scolded herself for being so foolish and finished, "because she was the cause of the fire. Her power. I thought that- that if I knocked her out the fire would go out."

Sam's eyes widened when he realized how much control she must have had over her power in order to do that. He glanced over at Scarlett's listless form uneasily, as if worried she'd turn him into a human torch. Which was a little ironic.

Scarlett stirred slightly, moaning. Sam took an involuntary step back, earning him dirty look from Sapphire that caused him to take a step away from _her__._

A horrible idea came to him. "Sapphire," he began hesitantly. He didn't want to, but he kept going. "Do you think you could knock Rose out like you did Scarlett? That way she won't feel what Astrid and Sophia do to her or the pain from the burns."

Sapphire's eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to protest, but then she closed it again. A look of despair clouded her expression, only to be replaced with a look of desperate determination. "Fine. I'll do it. but only _after_ we ask Rose and make sure that's what she wants us to do. If not, then we don't do it. It's her choice, and we have no right to take it away from her."

Sam considered what she said for a moment, then nodded grimly. Sapphire thought she might have caught a look of approval in his expression as well, but it was fleeting and soon forgotten because of the dire situation.

Sapphire and Sam approached Rose, kneeling at her side. "Rose," Sapphire began gently. Rose was drenched in sweat, but her eyes locked onto Sapphire's. "I had to knock Scarlett out to get her to stop using her power. She was the cause of the fire. I used the air and made it so she couldn't breathe, so she blacked out." Rose's eyes went wide with astonishment. Sapphire knew she had just been blabbering, reluctant to get to the point, but she couldn't help it.

Sam glanced at Sapphire, silently reprimanding her and reminding her that they needed to do this quickly. Sapphire nodded and took a deep, reassuring breath.

"We think we should do the same to you," she finished. Rose looked confused.

"Why?" she managed to gasp. "I'm not using any powers." Understanding seemed to dawn on her; Sam and Sapphire waited patiently as she seemed to wage some sort of internal battle before she nodded and grimaced. "Go ahead," she said.

Sapphire closed her eyes, but before she could do anything, Astrid interrupted.

"Wait," Astrid said, focusing on Sapphire and Rose. "You pushed all the oxygen out of the area surrounding Scarlett, so she blacked out because lack of oxygen flow to her brain, right?" Once Sapphire had nodded in assent, she continued, "Well, it might be easier on Rose if you just pushed all the molecules that make up the air out of the way, creating a sort of vacuum. The pressure in your inner ears drops so fast it'll knock you out almost instantaneously."

She gave the others a moment to process this. Sam looked entirely lost, but the girls seemed to understand at least a small portion of Astrid's science lesson. Sapphire turned to Rose.

"You want to do that instead? I think I can manage it if you do," she asked.

Rose considered it, and Astrid's idea did seem better than Sapphire's original plan. She nodded in agreement. Sapphire closed her eyes and focused on her task, latching onto each individual molecule in the air. Once she was sure she had them all, she mentally shoved them all out of the area.

It seemed to happen exactly as Astrid had described; Rose went slack immediately. Sapphire waited anxiously, and Rose drew in a steady breath. Her shoulders slumped in relief at the confirmation that she'd done it right.

Astrid released the breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding; Sam took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly before rushing off once more. Sapphire felt tears well up in her eyes when she looked at her limp sister and Rose lying on the floor, but she wiped at her eyes angrily and extinguished her feelings yet again. She headed back over to where Scarlett remained, slowly regaining consciousness.

Finally, Scarlett opened her eyes and propped herself up on one elbow as she surveyed the room. Observing the chaos with wide eyes and astonishment, her memories rushed back to her in a stampede. She remembered the power rising up in her, the fiery scarlet light, gasping for breath as the room burned around her and the power took control. Everything going black.

She realized that all of this was her fault. She stared at Rose, knowing that she was the cause of her pain. Sapphire embraced her tightly, whispering reassurance to her. Scarlett didn't know why she bothered. She felt terrible, hollow and empty except for the guilt. She tried to disentangle herself from her twin, but Sapphire held on despite her efforts, just tightening her grip in response.

"Stop," she said, louder than she'd been before. She pulled back slightly so she could look at her sister, keeping her grip on Scarlett's arms tight. "It wasn't your fault," she practically ordered, looking Scarlett straight in the eyes.

Scarlett shook her head, ceasing her efforts to escape and dropping her gaze from Sapphire's icy blue determined stare. Normally Sapphire's eyes were a light, sky blue, resembling the beautiful stone that she was named for, but now they were stormy.

Finally, Scarlett found her voice. "Of course it was my fault," she said hoarsely, ignoring Sapphire's protests. "Who else did that? I was the cause of the fire, and I was the cause of Rose getting burned. It _was_ my fault, Saph, and you're not going to convince me otherwise."

Sapphire raised her eyebrows. "Challenge accepted," she replied, which was so unlike what Scarlett had been expected that her eyes flitted upwards to meet her sister's determined ones. She lowered her gaze once more.

"If this is your fault," Sapphire began, after a moment of hesitation, "then do you think it's my fault when I knocked you out and nearly killed you earlier? Because by that policy, the blame falls completely on me. And what I did was worse. You nearly _died__._ And I just suffocated you, on purpose, a few minutes ago."

Instantly Scarlett's head whipped back up, and she jumped to her feet, all thoughts of her own guilt leaving her. Of course none of that was her sister's fault, and she would pulverize anyone who contradicted her on the matter.

"That's different! You didn't mean to! How could anyone blame you for that?

"Exactly," Sapphire said in a small voice, and this time it was her turn to lower her gaze from Scarlett's. "It was the same thing with you, only you nearly died. Rose will be fine after she recovers. So if you're gonna assign blame to yourself, then you have to assign the same blame to me."

Scarlett was speechless, but she realized her sister was right. She couldn't just pretend as if she hadn't done anything, however. She had no way of arguing with Sapphire, though, and her sister was fully aware of that. Sapphire grinned triumphantly, but Scarlett thought she saw a hint of sadness in Sapphire's once again clear blue eyes before it flitted away, leaving Scarlett unsure if it had been there in the first place.

"See? Told you I'd convince you. I win," Sapphire boasted, lifting the mood slightly. That progress was utterly obliviated when Angelina let out an ear piercing shriek.

Seeing her sister lying on the floor so helplessly, obviously in a lot of pain, was the hardest thing Angelina had ever witnessed. And knowing that she was completely powerless to help made it even worse. With the lingering terror of the fire and the fear she had felt for her adoptive sisters, coupled with the terror of discovering that those horrible events that had taken place in the FAYZ oh so long ago, it was all too much for the young girl.

She felt a shriek leave her body, being torn out of her. She seemed to split in two, power bursting from her at the seams. The room flooded, molecules of water seeming to come from the air and pool together, washing away the screams of the others.

She felt Rose ripped out of her grasp, and she panicked. She couldn't let her sister drown or get hurt any more than she already was.

She dove into the wave, not really worried about herself. She searched frantically for her sister, her vision oddly clear, but she repeatedly encountered floating debris that made her stop in her tracks.

Sapphire witnessed the whole thing, knowing that she had to take action before things got as bad as they had been before. Instinctively, she raised her arms as the wall of water came barreling towards her and Scarlett.

She felt the air swoosh over them, encasing them in a shell of oxygen and pushing back the tide that tried to overtake them. Scarlett, who had fallen over and scrambled backwards to try futilely to escape the sudden tide, shakily got to her feet and observed their makeshift bubble.

Sapphire saw Angelina freak out once Rose was washed away from her, seeing the girl dive after her as water streamed off her in rivulets. She turned to her sister.

"Stay here," she instructed. As if Scarlett had a choice. Scarlett couldn't leave the air bubble or she wouldn't be able to breathe. Sapphire wouldn't move the air bubble, even if Scarlett were selfish enough to waste her sister's precious time arguing with her and trying to convince Sapphire to take Scarlett along. She'd just be dead weight and they both knew it.

So Scarlett nodded, and Sapphire stepped out of their bubble and swam towards Angelina. She formed a small pocket of air right in front of her eyes, kind of like air goggles, so she could see better. She reached the smaller girl and came up behind her, tapping her on the shoulder.

Angelina startled, surprised to see Sapphire not affected by being under water, but she didn't have time to contemplate.

"We need to find Rose," Angelina said experimentally. She wasn't sure she'd be heard through the water, but Sapphire nodded, having created a tube of air for the sound to travel through. Not even bothering to think about why her little sister was still breathing, she kept the tunnel open long enough to respond.

"You find Rose, I'll work on finding the others. We'll need to get them to safety too," she said. Angelina nodded in assent, and the girls swam off, branching out in different directions after a short distance. Angelina swam at almost an unnatural pace, undoubtedly using the water to propel her, though she had already been an exceptional swimmer before.

Sapphire was the first to encounter one of their friends, coming across a frantic and drowning Sophia. The water pressure was pushing down just hard enough for her to be having trouble getting back out. It seemed like Sophia was on the verge of passing out. Sapphire quickly threw out her hands and sucked air down from the surface so quickly it sent the water spinning and spiraling around them, causing the debris to swirl violently.

Sapphire entered Sophia's bubble. Sophia was on the ground, coughing and dragging in deep breaths. The older girl waved her hand to signal Sapphire that she was alright.

"Go," she rasped. "Find the others."

Sapphire needed no additional urging. She used her momentum from leaving the bubble to propel her forwards through the water, scanning the tides frantically for the sign of someone else. They were running out of time.

Only a moment later, she found her second person. Astrid was floating in the water helplessly, most likely passed out. Sapphire hastened to create another bubble for her, then left after she saw Astrid move and cough up water.

She searched the waves valiantly, but she couldn't find anyone else. Eventually, she made it back to Scarlett's bubble, having scanned the entire room. She updated her sister on finding Sophia and Astrid, then swam off to find the latter and make sure she was alright in her bubble.

She found Astrid awake, seemingly back to normal. Astrid was pacing back and forth in her bubble anxiously when Sapphire arrived. Astrid rushed forward to greet her, asking if she'd found Sam. Sapphire hesitated, not wanting to tell her no, but told her the truth after a moment's consideration.

Astrid's face crumbled, and Sapphire quickly explained how Angelina was out searching for Rose and the others and had probably already found Sam. It seemed to help, but Sapphire knew Astrid was still out of her mind with worry.

/Break\

Meanwhile, Angelina scoured the water vigorously to find their missing friends, especially Rose.  
>By the time she finally came to a limp body floating in the water, her heart was pounding and she had a fierce headache. Water poured out of her constantly, increasing in amount the more frantic she became.<p>

She used the water to shove her forward so fast her ears popped when combined with the water pressure. The body looked pale, and the person was unconscious. It was Rose.

Angelina nearly wept with joy, but then she realized another problem: she had no way of saving Rose. Sapphire could create bubbles of air around people so they could breathe, and could move underwater without needing to breathe at all, but Angelina couldn't transfer her newfound ability to breathe underwater to anyone else. She was still helpless.

The thought made Angelina want to sink down to the floor and sob. But she didn't, instead embracing her sister.

She knocked herself in the head with the palm of her hand, ordering herself to think. She couldn't make it so that Rose could breathe under the water. But she _could_ get rid of the water, or at least take Rose out of it.

Reinvigorated, she pushed off the shadowy floor and propelled herself to the surface, letting go of Rose. She found the top of the water, though the level of it continued to rise. Angelina wasn't sure why, but finally she looked down and realized that all the water was now coming from her. She'd known that she'd caused the initial flood, but hadn't noticed that it'd kept increasing.  
>She closed her eyes in concentration and focused on staunching the water, using up a fair amount of her strength in the process. After what seemed an eternity but in reality was most likely only a few seconds, she cracked her eyes open to find that the water level had not only stopped rising, but had actually dropped somewhat. She wasted no time in diving back down, dragging her sister to the top.<p>

She noticed a place where the roof looked about ready to cave in, as her sister began to groan and cough weakly. Angelina knew she had to act quickly, in case Sapphire hadn't been able to get to the others.

She looked around helplessly, but she couldn't tell if there was any way for her to keep Rose out of the water while she went and looked for the others.

But then, a loud groan, followed by a crash that sent waves rippling backwards towards Rose and Sapphire, sending them sprawling backwards, split through the sounds of rushing water.

**A/N So this is our longest chapter yet! I hope you liked it! Over three thousand five hundred words... We got really caught up in this and by the time we realized it we were already at another scene so we didn't bother stopping.**

**Anyways, I want to point out that although we can see if you view the chapters, we can not know if you actually like what we are doing. As shocking as this may seem, we are not telepathic****. We need to know if we should keep posting chapters or if you guys are just not interested or hate this story. Let us know if you want us to continue or not. R****emember we are always open to criticism, good or bad, so feel free to tell us if you hate this story with all your being or like it, we want to know. If you see anything we need to improve on then that's great. Please don't just say you hate our story. Tell us why or what we may need to do to fix it, and if it is in our abilities we will.**

**On an entirely different note, the subject of suicide has been brought back into the forefront of my mind. My neighbor recently committed it in the fear that he may be developing All Timers Disease. Please please please, if you are going through hard times and thinking about this, remember that someone will always be there for you. YOU ARE LOVED. WE CARE ABOUT YOU. You can talk to people about what is happening. I can guarantee you that SOMEONE will be there to listen to you. You can always PM me about this. I may not know you, but I care about your life. I care about YOU.**

**I should warn you... I won't be posting for at least another week or two. We are getting a bunch of projects and assignments and I just don't have time to do this as well. Both of us will be too busy to write much until really late at night and by then our writing won't be very good because we will be too tired to correct ourselves when we mess up which means when we are free we will be fixing _that._**

**Sorry for my ramble. Thanks for those who have stuck with us this far. Cya!**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N Don't kill me for posting this so late but... It just hit me as I finished rereading a couple of series that I will never be able to share the world of these characters again and I kind of had an emotional crisis and couldn't write and my friend had to calm me down which took days so she couldn't write, then we ended up with one short story each (it was supposed to be twelve paragraphs which is about a page or two**** but... does 6-9 pages still count as a short story?), a timeline for me, an essay for me, a brochure for Kayla, a map for Kayla, and Journal entries for each of us, and find the meaning of a song for me. We also had more than four math assignments and a quiz on top of that and we are now starting a bunch of science projects. It was a long weekend... then I started working on something that Kayla wants me to publish when I finish so... ya... my excuse. **

**I am really sorry for the long wait though, and then giving you this chapter which is so short compare to all the others ****(this is only 1,669 words, our record so far is 3,970 words on the last chapter,)****, but we decided to cut it off there and get a head start on the next chapter so maybe we wouldn't keep you all waiting so long.**

**I'm ranting again. I do that a lot. Sorry.**

**Seven**|

ANGELINA SCREAMED, TUMBLING backwards through the water and dragging the limp body of her sister with her. She gained her bearings quickly, sputtering as she found the surface again.

Suddenly, inspiration hit her. She knew what to do with Rose, but she had to do it quickly. That much was obvious.

Dragging Rose behind her still, she cautiously swam closer to the unstable roof. After a moment, once she was sure it wasn't going to randomly crush them, she manipulated her power to blast the water where the roof was weakest. It worked, and the roof caved in around them. Angelina went underwater to protect herself and Rose, using the water currents to send debris away from them.

The two girls surfaced once more, and Angelina used the water to heave them up onto the roof. She sprawled Rose across it, on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, but she pulled herself to her feet, took one more longing glance at the roof and her sister, and dove back through the hole into the water. As soon as she hit the water, her eyes landed upon a struggling form.

Angelina had found Sam. Just in the few seconds it took for her to react, she could see his movements becoming slower, more groggy. She immediately rushed to him, shooting both herself and Sam back up through the new hole in the roof in a geyser of water.

As soon as they landed, gently thanks to Angelina, Sam coughed up water, shook his head, and looked at her gratefully.

"Thanks," he said, his voice a little raspy. "Is Astrid alright?"

Angelina shook her head. "I don't know," she responded sadly. Sam hung his head, looking miserable. "But I sent Sapphire to look for her and the others. She might have already found her by now. She and Scarlett are both okay, but they're the only two I'm sure about."

Sam nodded, looking at their surroundings. He spotted Rose, who had begun to groan and shift.

"I'll take care of her," he assured her. "Just go look for the others." Angelina obeyed him, diving back into the water without hesitation.

And she almost landed on Sapphire.

Sapphire opened the communication tunnel of air so they could talk to each other. "I found Astrid," Sapphire told her. "And Sophia."

"I've gotten Sam and Rose to safety. They're up on the roof, right above us. Rose was starting to wake up, and Sam was fine. He said he'd take care of her while I looked for the others."

Sapphire looked relieved. "Both Astrid and Sophia are fine," she said. "We should probably try to go find everyone else."

"Yeah, we should," Angelina agreed, and the two girls separated, swimming off in opposite directions.

It wasn't long until Angelina found Diana, floating near Edilio. She'd strayed too far from Sam and Rose to be able to get them back in time, but she noticed that there was a spot almost directly above them that had a weak roof as well. She blasted it down like she had the other one, quickly shooting Diana and Edilio up there.

She followed them. They were both sprawled on the roof, and for one horrible moment it seemed as if Angelina hadn't gotten there in time and they were both dead.

But then Diana twitched, and Edilio rolled over, groaning. They were alive. Angelina nearly collapsed with relief, but she knew that they could still be injured badly. Edilio seemed to be waking already, so she took that as a sign that he was mostly okay and walked over to Diana's prone body. Diana was lying on her stomach, the back of her head showing instead of her face. Angelina stooped down and gently rolled Diana over so that she could see her face.

She sucked in a sharp breath. A gash ran down the length of the left side of Diana's face. Blood streamed from the wound, matting in Diana's wet, dark hair.

Angelina frantically looked around for something to bandage and apply pressure on the wound, but she found nothing. Edilio, still a little disoriented but mostly okay, walked over to them and crouched by Diana's other side.

"Here," he said. He held out a roll of clean white gauze. Angelina wondered where he'd gotten it, but then her eyes landed on a small first aid kit that she'd missed in her scan of the roof. Not wasting time even to thank him, she set to work.

She started by taking a section of the gauze to press over the wound while she figured out how she would go about helping her, pressing down on it a little roughly while using her other hand to rummage in the first aid kit Edilio had retrieved, looking for something useful.

Seeing that the bleeding had at least slowed, she used one of the antiseptic wipes in the kit to gently mop off some of the blood so she could get a better look at it. Once the blood had all but stopped and most of it had been cleaned off, she could see that the cut was a little longer than she had first estimated, but it didn't look as serious now that it had been cleaned.

She carefully applied a gauze pad that she'd located in the kit, positioning it so it covered the entire injury, then used medical adhesive tape to hold it in place. Just for good measure, she wrapped bandages around Diana's head a few times until she was sure it was secure.

Diana moaned, then blearily opened one eye. Angelina slumped back against a large pileup of debris from when she blasted out the ceiling, exhausted and relieved. She felt a vague notion that she had other urgent things to do, but she was too tired to really care.

Dimly, she was aware of someone saying her name, but before she could respond, her head lolled off to one side and she was asleep.

Below them, the waters finally began to recede. Sapphire and Scarlett, still huddled in one of the little air pockets Sapphire had created to shelter them, breathed a deep sigh of a relief at the sight. The swirling waters calmed, just seeming to evaporate instantaneously after a minute or two of somewhat slower progress that made it seem as if there were a giant drain located somewhere on the floor, and someone had just pulled the plug.

Edilio was fixing up Diana's bandages as the water slowly went down, now lapping gently at the walls, as opposed to the huge typhoon it had been. It looked so peaceful, aside from the debris still floating in it and the dirty state of the water. It was almost like the ocean, but without the sandy beaches. As he and Diana watched, the water seemed to calm them, stilling their nerves and calming the energy still pumping in their veins.

Sam was speaking in soft voices to Rose, who had awoken and was looking a lot better with the water cleared from her system and the burns better attended to. There was no way for them to know the horrible things that would occur after this chain of events, even though they knew that it wasn't over.

Sophia and Astrid knew better than to let their guards down. Both girls knew that there was no chance they could ever truly be at peace. Not until they were all dead, and the powers were gone forever from the world.

**A/N**

**Ya... so this was supposed to happen in like five minutes time span at most so sorry it feels like an hour we are just going to ignore that right now. Anyways... Yes, I know that by this time they should need emergency medical care or at least CPR or something but we are just going to ignore that logic... forever. In case you haven't noticed, logic was basically thrown out a thirty story window when we started writing this story. We will try to update sooner, but no promises.**

**Kayla would like me to add that the last paragraph's morbid/grimness was not approved by her, because I have a thing for foreshadowing with ominous words and she does not.**

**REMEMBER TO R+R.**

**Cya.**


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